This week’s Scientist of the Week is junior environmental studies and geology double major Jamie McFarlin hailing from Caramel Valley, Calif. This upcoming fall term Jamie will be studying abroad in Ecuador, where she will also be studying the ecology between the Galapagos, the Amazon and the Andes Mountains. She will spend her last four weeks there working on an independent study most likely pertaining to watershed contamination.
Just a few days after returning from Ecuador, McFarlin will go to Puerto Rico for ten days with the Geology department. In Puerto Rico she will be studying patterns in climate change by taking soil samples, which she may turn into her honors project when she comes back to Lawrence next January. In her honors project she may do comparative analyses of climate changes between South and North America.
“If I eventually go to grad school I would like to study weather patterns as far back as I can,” stated McFarlin. She continued, “I like learning about what is around me. It is not enough to be out in it; I have to understand it which ultimately gives it more meaning.